


A Prince's Sorrow

by whitearrow



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: Angst, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-26
Updated: 2016-07-25
Packaged: 2018-07-26 19:17:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 754
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7586635
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whitearrow/pseuds/whitearrow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>(Major Birthright Spoilers) Instead of one life being taken at the end of Birthright, another is--Xander must deal with ending his father's reign, when he himself is about to break into a thousand pieces. Likely to be a 3 part story.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Prince's Sorrow

**Author's Note:**

> Ah I love angst. I should get back to working on my Fredrobin series...Hmm but I'm busy w/ some other writing projects (making a kamarx anthology for one). Anyway, enjoy!

Prince Xander was breaking all of his own rules. 

 

All the pillars, everything he'd constructed came crashing down. 

 

All because of her. 

 

The princess that lay before him in his arms, bleeding the rest of her life out. She was the culprit behind all of this madness. Why couldn't she have quietly accepted her fate as he did? No, headstrong, she pushed her morals on to him and his whole family. 

 

Every time he was told to strike her he could not. Intrusive thoughts of striking himself before hurting her overcame him, yet he had to pull through. 

 

And yet...guilty thoughts of striking her in Hoshido plagued him over and over again. The melancholy in her eyes haunted him nightly--what paths had fate put them on?

 

His eyes met hers again in the opera house. While all others were enchanted with the dancer his heart held great unease. And it was not for naught. 

 

Eyes full of melancholy held something new; a strengthens resolve and fire that promised revolution. He thought they flickered when she pleaded for him to reconsider her offer, or at least some part of him hoped it had. 

He longed to see the young princess who had bloomed before him. Longing was unsafe, impure. It would only hold him back. And so he had yet again converted it to revenge for her wrongdoings. 

 

With every blow he struck, he was one step closer to her, to capturing her. And then what? Surely she couldn't rejoin their family after such treasonous transgressions. What would happen to her? 

 

He needn't say the answer to that. 

It was moot regardless. She had slipped out of his grasp again, barely tossing a glance in his direction before she fled. 

 

The days after that had grown even worse for his heart. What was he fighting for? Before he was able to look forward to rare chances to spend evenings with his family, with her. No longer could he meet with Corrin to train her and earn her the right to leave her fortress...but gods, he wished he never had. That he had kept her there forever and none of this would have ever transpired. 

 

He had dreamed to take her to see the world, show her all the sights she'd only read about in books. He'd take her to festivals and to the beach and mountains and--

 

And he would never let her go. Why, why was he consumed in thoughts of her? Her smile was all he could see. Night after night he was the victim of insomnia and even his work was becoming too taxing to complete. His mind swirled with thoughts of him hurting her and making her sad and just so much anguish over everything he had done. He cared for her so much so why--

 

No that was why he had faltered. Leo changed. Camilla changed. Neither of them had the will to fight and he suspected that they had even aided her. Were they mad? Did they not know the price of treason? Or did they simple not care? He couldn't lose them too--and he had decided to take care of things once and for all. No longer would he dream of what was or could have been, despite the tumult in his heart.  

 

No longer could he spend dinners of Elise and Corrin bickering with Leo, camilla's laughter interspersed amongst their arguing. How happily he'd sit amongst them even though they were quiet. When his family was whole, was happy just to be together. 

 

All that was left were shambles. He had killed his younger sister with his own two hands. And the other girl he reluctantly called sister, not out of dislike but because the feelings that dwelled in his heart were not of familial affection. He loved her. There was no longer any denying it. He loved her with all he had, and by the gods was he a broken man the moment he realized they could never be side by side. When she had turned her back to join the cause he had to give his life to fight against--how many times has his words wound her...he had even struck her, a desperate attempt to bring her to her senses--how could she leave them so easily? How could she leave him so easily.

 

And yet, as she fell in his arms, he knew he forgave everything--the moment he felt her skin, all was forgotten. All was forgiven.


End file.
